Thoughts from Learning Technologies

by Alan Nelson

Last week was quite an event for the e-learning industry. It was the annual conference and exhibition, Learning Technologies. We were exhibiting and as always with these events, it was exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure.

Our marketing people had really outdone themselves this year and the stand looked fantastic. They had come up with the idea of giving out flowers and by mid morning on the first day the whole exhibition was full of people with sunset gerberas sticking out of their delegate goody bags. People started coming to the stand just to find out where they were coming from.

It was a great gimmick and ensured that all four people on the stand were busy talking to delegates for the entire two days. Even I find it tiring to talk for that long, although my colleagues in Vauxhall might not believe that!

I had some really interesting conversations during the two days. More and more people are coming round to the idea that they must engage with online educational provision, even those from seemingly unlikely environments. I had two in depth conversations, for example, with people charged with professional development in universities. I would hazard a guess that there aren’t many audiences more difficult to engage than academics, so next time you are frustrated at how hard it is to get people to take part, spare a thought for our new friends in higher education.

I was very encouraged by the show overall. I heave heard that exhibitions everywhere are suffering in the recession but this one was different. The number of exhibitors had increased and the show took up the whole floor at Olympia when last year it had only used a part. There were more delegates than ever before and time, and again I heard people say that they were looking seriously at online learning because they simply weren’t going to be able to afford to continue doing things face-to-face as times got hard.

I have said before that things are going exceptionally well for us at the moment and we certainly don’t see any signs of being affected by the downturn. Maybe I can now start to say it without touching every piece of wood in the room!

Comments

[David Hopkins]

I was unfortunate in that when I approached your stand you had run out of flowers and all your excellent staff were busy chatting to other people, so I carried on by. My loss.

Your stand was very good and very eye-catching, but told me absolutely nothing of what you were about; nothing other than your name. Sorry, my only negative.

I enjoyed the day, and the seminars, but was slightly disappointed as the majority of exhibitors and speakers were intent on commercial tools rather than the reason and pedagogy for using them ... which was my reason for attending. As I support a fully online degree programme at Bournemouth University (among other tasks and responsibilities) I know what tools are about but want to know about making them work better for me. Something very few at the exhibition could comprehend. I have nothing to do with, or interested in, CPD within the University, but need ideas and answers to methods to present learning materials to students, not staff. Too many organisations are targeting the wrong people; the students / learners are the future, not the University.

[Alan Nelson]

Thanks for your comment. I couldn't agree more. The industry spends too much time getting excited about technology rather than learners.

I'm sorry you didn't get a flower. We ended up bringing 200 or so back, so you must have just been unlucky in your timing.

Our approach to engaging learners is generally to focus on categorising learning outcomes with different activities suited to each type. I'd be happy to share our experiences if you think that would help.